Feeding the Multitudes

Participants in the center's summer camp program harvest peppers.

(Left to right) Rev. Joyner, Cecio Cardenas and Fe Viva pack fresh produce for distribution to locals in need.

The sandy Edgecombe County soil around Conetoe once sustained a number of small family farms, many Black-owned, which provided fresh vegetables and economic opportunity for the rural community. Today, Conetoe (kuh-NEE-tuh), is in a food desert — the nearest grocery stores are about a 10-mile drive to Tarboro or Pinetops. The county ranks near the bottom of North Carolina counties in population health.

The Rev. Richard Joyner saw the health issues when he became pastor of Conetoe Missionary Baptist Church in 1986. During his first year, he held funeral after funeral as a high number of his parishioners died of possibly preventable illnesses related to diet, such as obesity and type-2 diabetes. On top of that, many area farmers had abandoned farming, and with it went jobs, self-sufficiency and easy access to fresh produce.

In response, Rev. Joyner started the Conetoe Family Life Center (CFLC) in 2009. Today, the center farms without chemicals on 25 acres it owns, plus other acreage it leases from area farmers. Most of the produce is packed in giveaway boxes and distributed through churches and other organizations in Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson counties.

CFLC Executive Director Evelyn Powell works with the apprenticeship program to inspire young people to find purpose in the land, and spread that purpose and passion to the community.

Food for health

To try to show that a healthier diet means healthier people, the center began working with ECU Health in 2022 on an ongoing program called Food is Medicine. The program has been following 20 to 30 members of the community, providing the means for healthy eating then checking blood sugar and other vitals weekly to monitor changes. Organizers say they’ve seen improvements in blood sugar levels and blood pressure among many participants.

"Our goal with the program is to create educated farmers, and to inspire young people in the depressed area to find purpose in the land and spread that purpose to bring together the larger community”

Also, an apprenticeship program helps train the next generation of farmers. Conetoe Family Life Center collaborates with NC State University, NC A&T State University, Edgecombe Community College and local high schools on the approximately two-year program. Participants earn college credit while learning about farming from the preparing the soil and cultivation to farm management and handling equipment, explains Evelyn Powell, CFLC executive director.

“Our goal with the program is to create educated farmers, and to inspire young people in the depressed area to find purpose in the land and spread that purpose to bring together the larger community,” Evelyn says.

All those activities make the center’s headquarters a busy place. On any given day, volunteers are filling food boxes in the packing shed, tractors are heading into the fields, construction crews are working on a professional kitchen to host cooking classes and rent out for catering, and academic tutoring is going on for 5- to 15-year-olds.

Even the younger kids spend time in the fields, learning where food comes from, during the center’s summer camp.

“There’s something about watching a 5-year-old plant something and watching it grow,” says Rev. Joyner, who was named a 2015 “Top 10 CNN Hero” for his work. “Then they want to eat what they grow, even if they’ve never seen it before. If kids grow it, they will eat

Putting land to use

The land the center owns had been in the Vines family for 100 years and had fallen out of production before CFLC bought it. Many of the farms leased are Black-owned and are now back in use, including one that belongs to a 78-year-old volunteer who also repairs the center’s tractors, who grew up as part of a Pitt County sharecropping family. 

Volunteers keep things going, packing squash, sweet potatoes, collards or whatever’s in season into about 500 food boxes a week during spring, summer and fall. The center purchases some food from the NC Food Bank, but most of what they pack is grown there. Volunteers also do light farming work or tutoring, plus create recipe cards for anyone not familiar with a particular vegetable in the box. The center partners with other organizations for delivery.

And the center plans to take the farm to the people. Rev. Joyner wants to provide assistance and materials to build raised garden beds at 80 area churches, and donate plants and seed, giving members direct access to healthy vegetables.

Rev. Joyner’s goal is to bring families together around healthful, sustaining food, a topic that he preaches about from the pulpit, too, with the goal of reaching the whole person — not just their spirituality.

“Part of what we ask with the boxes is that the family sits down together to have dinner from it,” Rev. Joyner says. “Some people can’t remember the last time they all sat at the table and had dinner together, plugging into the abundance around us.”